I should have looked harder before I posted. Found it not on
Microsoft.com, but here:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#backup_home
I'd rather have an official version, but I'll take what I can get. I did
find a MS article on how to install it from the CD, but of course, the OEM
edition doesnt come with a CD. I found and About.com article on this very
matter, a link to an Annoyances.com article about people trying in vain to
get a copy from their computer makers, and finally, the link above.
That's a good link for it. It's been around a long time. There are better
backup solutions than ntbackup. Ntbackup cannot backup to DVD and will only
backup to CD if other 3rd party CD burning software is available and even
with that it will not span CDs, i.e. one CD is the limit, which is not very
practical. It is geared toward tape drives or other hard drives. It will
work ok in backing up to an external hard drive (or network drive) and
restoring individual files / folders is ok. The ASR feature is not
available in XP Home, though I don't see it as a big loss since it's a very
cumbersome process.
I would suggest you look at a drive imaging program. This makes an exact
image of the partition which can be saved on CD/DVD or to another drive -
internal or external. Imaging to an external USB 2.0 / Firewire drive works
well. Then occasionally burning an image to DVD gives you redundancy.
Restores can be done of the entire partition or individual files / folders.
These work well and make it easy to recover from a drive crash. Examples of
this are:
Acronis True Image (seems to be the favorite these days)
Norton Ghost 10
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
Another option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
BackUP, Sonic's Backup MyPC or SecondCopy from
www.centered.com. There are
other backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete backup or
backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.
